Spotlight on contracts as NBN ramps up

Some 20 per cent of the money has already been spent. 
 
As the awarding of NBN contracts ramps up, scrunity is now turning onto the execution of the project rather than its merits.

In an absolute economic sense, NBN Co's $1.1 billion contract with Ericsson to build the wireless portion of the national broadband network is far too expensive. Telstra, by contrast, spent the same amount to build its Next-G mobile network, back in 2006 with a much larger footprint.

Specifics of the new generation LTE technology explain the disparity, but such comparisons are likely to become far more common as last week's affirmative Telstra shareholder vote slided the $35.9 billion project further and further from the threat of cancellation.   Full Read